i listen to a few pop music podcasts but the one i return to most is pop pantheon. tho it's started to branch out a bit over the past year (probably cos they're running out of big stars to cover), the general concept is that they cover one artist every week - sometimes over multiple episodes if that star has an important career to cover - and then at the end they rank them in the pantheon according to how big their career has been and (to a lesser extent) how big a cultural footprint they've left.

in that, the likes of michael, beyoncé, mariah and diana ross are tier one icons, gaga and britney in tier two, katy and bieber in three, kesha and PCD in four etc etc. some of these are questionable and there's a tendency to have to talk themselves around to things that they really ought to know in their bones eg there was a lot of waffle recently about whether whitney was tier one where they had to construct some elaborate argument around her contribution to black music as a whole when in fact OF COURSE WHITNEY IS TIER ONE SHE'S WHITNEY HOUSTON FFS. but also, there is an effort to be objective rather than, say, just rank robyn in tier 1 cos they think she's good (robyn is a "niche legend", which means that she's too influential to put in tier 5, or at least that they like her too much to throw her in with tiffany)

i like it because it's one of the few podcasts that actually takes pop music seriously and will dissect careers properly and thoroughly in the way that rock acts have gotten all along. there's been an improvement over time in the standard of coverage each act gets - early shows were often a bit hit and miss and it was rare to get 2 episodes on one act (gaga's episode suffers from this a bit and she probably needs recovering, which happens from time to time) whereas now there's going to be three separate series on taylor, of which the first is all that we've had so far. on the downside, the more that presenter louis has made friends with a bunch of fancy critics i feel like the more he's absorbed their ways - like there's no way early louis would have not put britney in tier one - and also it's very american-centric where, for too many artists, if it didn't happen there then it never happened at all. still, it's the best of its kind and i forgive it's shortcomings

these are a few ATRL faves who've been covered

lady gaga

rihanna

beyoncé

britney

christina

mariah

ariana

taylor

charli xcx

lana

does anyone else listen to pop pantheon? what do you think of it? did you support ariana being moved up to tier two (i'm sure this happened)? anyway if you don't know it and you like this kind of in depth analysis then it's well worth listening to

Edited May 23May 23 by makeawish

It's been my favourite podcast since it first debuted 5 year ago. I agree with Louie on almost everything he says, and even when I strongly disagree, he's so succinct that I love hearing his perspective. It was like a podcast tailor made for my exact perspective on popular music.

One of my favorites! They do a fantastic job of researching, summarizing, and editorializing, and always bring on great guests. Love a lot of the side content too, like the song of the summer rankings and list episodes. The Lily Allen episode from last week was really great!

I listen regularly. Probably one of the best and most consistent pop music podcasts out there, and like you said they treat pop with the same respect those high brow rockists do with rock music so I'm here for it. I generally agree with their rankings, although I would put Britney in tier one. Her placement is still pretty contentious and caused the most debate lol. Whitney Houston being tier one is correct but that same logic applied to Britney caused her being placed in tier two, so they sometimes lack consistency in their assessments. I think they will eventually move Britney up to tier one at some point.

22 minutes ago, makeawish said:

does anyone else listen to pop pantheon? what do you think of it? did you support ariana being moved up to tier two (i'm sure this happened)? anyway if you don't know it and you like this kind of in depth analysis then it's well worth listening to

Yeah Ariana was moved up to tier two in late 2024 during the Wicked era but she should have been moved up right after ES. Bieber was recently moved up to tier two after SWAG release as well which was overdue imo. They should have moved him up after Justice.

34 minutes ago, Tm4074 said:

Bieber was recently moved up to tier two after SWAG release as well which was overdue imo. They should have moved him up after Justice.

i thought the bieber ranking was questionable as well but i tend to think they're usually pretty good on that. cher tier 1 will always stick with me tho, she's just getting bonus points for hanging around

I'll have to check it out. I was actually looking for a new podcast to get into so ty

They covered shakira and I'm conflicted if I agree with her being tier 2 lol but oh well

these kings

Such a great podcast, especially the career retrospective episodes. Their guests are top tier!!

10 minutes ago, Welovetrouble said:

They covered shakira and I'm conflicted if I agree with her being tier 2 lol but oh well

this is what i mean by them being too american centric, iirr they did a whole thing trying to justify this and it kinda stank lmao